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Amberish K Diwanji

The Hindu rightwing has never represented, nor does it represent the true Hindu ethos

The popular USA Today newspaper asked its readers on the net to vote for the person of the century, and the choice was Mahatma Gandhi. Today, as I write this, the world is marking 50 years of his assassination, once described as the Second Crucifixion (30 January 1948 was also a Friday). George Bernard Shaw had commented that Gandhi's death showed how dangerous it is to be good! Gandhi is today considered the apostle of peace and non-violence. He endeavoured to ensure that Hindus and Muslim stop shedding each other's blood.

The media (Rediff On The NeT included) has been awash with reports and interviews with those who assassinated the Mahatma. These extreme right-wing Hindus have expressed no regrets. To be honest, nothing more can be expected from such persons. These men hold him responsible for India's vivisection, and for handing over Rs 550 million to Pakistan after Partition.

It must surely be ironical that people who are intolerant in their religious attitude and unwilling to accept social and cultural plurality, should be so angered at the thought of Pakistan. Partition had its roots in the chasm between Hindus and Muslims, which worsened over the years leading up to Independence. This is not the place to blame anyone, the Muslim League or the Congress; and whether Partition could have been avoided will be debated in the years to come. But what one cannot deny is that if ever the dream of a united subcontinent is to come true, it cannot as long as religious fanaticism prevails.

Do Hindu extremists ever believe that millions of Muslims will be willing to stay under Hindu rulers who are intolerant of their creed (just as no Hindu will ever stay in a fanatically Islamic Pakistan)? Such rulers despise those they perceive as different from them. Wasn't it the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Golwalkar who once declared, way back in the 1930s, that Muslims should have no rights in India? Perhaps India and Pakistan might come together in some form or the other in the future. But such an alliance will never occur under the dispensation of men who believe in religious superiority and show intolerance, who seek to perpetuate in the right of only one particular way of life and reject other creeds and faiths.

Gandhi's assassination is condemnable because it imposed the wish of a small set of men on the rest of India. Those in organisations such as the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha passionately believe in their cause. But what they cannot explain is why the rest of India then does not believe them; why the RSS remained a limited organisation for years (growing only in the recent communalised times) while the Hindu Mahasabha disappeared from the political horizon. Perhaps the answer is that the average Hindu had little use for the likes of the RSS; Gandhi's love and tolerance was far more appealing, and more reflective of the true Hindu spirit.

The Hindu rightwing has never represented, nor does it represent the true Hindu ethos. The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party political ascendancy today has more to do with the decline of the other political parties and little with its own ideology. In fact, even the BJP has been forced to tone down its right-wing rhetoric to endear itself to the Indian masses, the very same masses which named Gandhi Mahatma. And if Gandhi used his influence to get India to pay Pakistan, at least today we Indians can proudly say that we never defaulted on our credit. Is a mere Rs 550 million worth losing our honour over? And to think that right-wing Hindus who forever harp on honour killed him for it.

In accepting Gandhi as their leader, it only reflects gloriously on the high values of Indians. It will be to India' eternal credit, that while the dawn of the 20th century saw the Western world wracked by two world wars and atom bomb killings, when westerners blindly followed fascists to their destruction, Indians actually won freedom by following a man who spoke of non-violence and truth force (ahimsa and satyagraha). After Buddhism, this message has remained India's greatest export, and has influenced millions worldwide.

Martin Luther King, Jr, led the civil rights movement using the tactics of Gandhi, to great success. A young man working in the White House, Daniel Ellsberg, troubled by the excesses of the Vietnam war and influenced by Gandhi's works, leaked out the Pentagon papers which hastened the end of the war (culminating in the US's first military defeat ever). And of course, Nelson Mandela has always acknowledged his debt to the Mahatma.

Sadly, Indians seem to have little use for Gandhi today, who is remembered only on his birth and death anniversaries. It is not because Gandhi's ideas are irrelevant in today's India, but because Indians are incapable of using them well today. Gandhi spoke of swadeshi to help the poorest Indians and fight the British rulers, today Indian businessmen holler the word to save their useless industries and cheat the poor Indian consumers. Gandhi had warned that unless the village economy was improved, India would remain poor; fifty years of economic failures and the success of neighbouring Asian countries has finally proven his wisdom!

Today, India boasts world-class IITs, but 50 per cent of Indians cannot read or write; massive factories (the temples of Nehru's India), but no productivity; large cities with jobs and no houses, villages with houses and no jobs; and over 400 million Indians who must go hungry daily. There still remain villages where dalits are massacred for merely existing, for demanding basic human rights such as the right to draw water form the village well or the daily wage as enjoined by law. The sad result of inhumane policies created to benefit the middle-class and lower middle class; but which showed an utter lack of concern for the poorest and the most deprived, and who still remain beyond the horizon.

As India and the world heads into a new millennium, it is time to recognise Gandhi's relevance more than ever before. This doesn't mean blindly following Gandhi's ideals and philosophy, as so-called Gandhians have done (and become marginalised in the bargain) but to mould them, where necessary, for the present. After all, it was Gandhi who once said that the reason he often changed his mind was because he had learnt something new. It is thus the time to adapt and then adopt his ideas to create a better India and world. To simply fulfill the promises that the Constitution made and the country's founding fathers gave. Internationally, there are some who talk of the clash of civilisations, but that perhaps reflects a narrow Western worldview. In fact, as the world shrinks into a global village, it will need Gandhi's ahimsa more then ever before to make it a more livable place.

Amberish K Diwanji